Limitations on Radionuclide Release From Partially Failed Containers

摘要

Over time, due to physical and chemical disturbances, nuclear waste packages at the Yucca Mountain repository are anticipated to fail gradually and evolve into a mixture of corroded locations and discrete objects of intact Alloy-22 and other waste package materials. Radionuclides leak from waste packages by dissolution and transport in water.In this paper, we address the condition of a partially failed waste container in which multiple penetrations potentially allow water to flow through it. In this situation, residual heat release in the waste is expected to create a capillary pressure gradient and set up flow systems in the relict protected areas. In these systems water flows into the protected area toward the warmest region and evaporates, effectively sequestering radionuclides in the relict sheltered areas. We explore analytically the impacts of these processes on radionuclide release from the waste packages.